Turkish Coffee Poem by Taher Shemaly

Here, in my small saucer
lies an ivory cup of fortune
He whispers to me with passion
while it is approaching my chin

Tell me O ancient one
who was and who is to be
For the present as you can see
I am here and it is to me

My beloved carrier of coffee
has a lineage of Ottomans
at nights we discuss history
And by day back to humans

He told me of Kashgar,
Constantinople and India
News of old and present
news of Joshua and Jeremiah

O my beloved turkish
do the magic to this brain
While I forget the goodness
that lies in people, in vain